The Spinster's Treadle

Traditional Handmade Felt

How do individual felt fibers form compact fabric known as felt?

Wool has microscopic "scales" along the length of its fibers. When the scales rub against each other they progressively interlock, pulling the fibers closer together. This process can be enhanced with moisture, heat, and soap. The result is an increase in fiber/cloth density along with considerable shrinkage.

friction – moves the wool fibers against one another to help them grab each other
moisture – swells the fibers and makes it easier for them to "grab" one another
heat - causes fibers to swell even more
soap – wetting agent and lubricant

Click on the link below to view a detailed tutorial on wet feltmaking to better understand this process.

Traditional (Wet) Feltmaking Tutorial (pdf)

I have also included basic instructions (with images) for various felt projects with the wool and supplies that I sell on this website. click here

Information regarding the feltmaking community and other educational resources can be found on the resource page of this website.

Here is a brief outline of the general process

The wool is sheared from the sheep, washed, sometimes dyed, and carded into a "batt or roving" for evenness and manageability. The project is "built" with layers of dry fiber (alternating directions) and a solution of warm soapy water is used to wet it. The fiber is pressed and rubbed carefully at first to form loose cloth of felt. Fulling or hardening of the felt is then done with more rigorous agitation.

Felt can be made flat or formed into dimensional and sculptural shapes. Sheep’s wool works the best but other wool/furs can also be used.
Some items made from felt

clothing; tents (yurts); piano key pads; upholstery; art; balls; toys; bags/vessels; boots; saddle blankets; hats; and much more!

Please visit my gallery to see some of my felt artwork.

Amanda's school project: The Earth's Layers

History

Felt pre-dates all other textiles. Discoveries in Central Asia dating from 600 BC. were already sophisticated. Felt making and use of felt is still a part of many cultures in Central Asia and other areas of the world. Felt was probably discovered when wool was used to pad the sandals of sore feet: wool + warm feet + sweat (moisture) + friction = felt!!

Definitions

Felting is the whole process but it also refers to the 1^st part of pressing and shaping the wool layers into loose cloth.
Fulling is the second step in which the felted cloth is rubbed vigorously into durable fabric. If fulling is not complete the fabric will be loose and possibly "pill" or pull apart.

Wool Charactaristics

There are many different types of wool due to the many breeds of sheep available. Ideally, a small sample of the wool should be felted prior to use in a larger project. Shrinkage will also vary and should be determined with each project. The pattern can then be adjusted to allow for the expected shrinkage.

Wool can be very coarse (stong) or extremely fine depending on the genetic selection for that breed. Click here for a table that gives three methods of wool grading and some examples of sheep that fall into each category. While this grading system does not give any indication of the felting ability of the fleece, it will indicate what purpose it might be best for (rugs, clothing, etc.) and this terminology will often arise when purchasing fiber. I find that most wool vendors use the spinning count or micron grading system.

Some other wool fibers are angora rabbit, cashmere, human (dreadlocks), cats/dogs, llama, alpaca, camel, and mohair (angora goat)

Commercial Processing Methods

Left - Batts prepared on large drum carders.

Right - Roving: A continuous strand of carded or combed fiber that has been further extended and slightly twisted into a long strip.

Middle - Top: The same as roving except that it is combed in a manner that selects fiber of uniform length and combs out small fibers. Usually looks denser and smoother than roving.

There are numerous breeds of sheep with greatly diverse fiber characteristics and any breed can be prepared by any of the above methods. However, since top creates a lot of waste fiber and is labor intensive it is usually only prepared from fine wool or expensive exotic fibers.

Want to buy raw fleece that has been sheared from the sheep and wash and process your own wool? You may find the following instructions helpful

Selecting a Raw Fleece (pdf)

Fleece Preparation (pdf)

Washing Raw Fleece (pdf)

Felting Machines

Felting machines have recently appeared on the US market. For wet felting there are flat bed and rolling types. Basically the machine does the felting part but is not very useful or efficient in the fulling stages*. To understand this better click here to see the Norwegian Table Runner tutorial and imagine the machine pictured at the right doing the rolling steps described in the tutorial. As the artist you must still design, layout and usually do all of the fulling by hand. But for production felt makers the machine can be a great help.

*There are ways to do some of the fulling in the machine and there are companies working on the development of machines that complete the fulling process as well.

Producers of rolling machines: www.feltcrafts.com

Note: There are also needle felting machines for dry felting that look like sewing machines retrofitted with felting needles or they can be more elaborate/industrial looking equipment. This is also called machine felting on some discussion forums which can be confusing.

My rolling machine called "The Empress" can create continuous yardage 60 inches wide. Built by Celtic Moon Fibreworks.

Other techniques that are sometimes called "Felting" are described below.

Needle Felting

Needle felting is a dry felting method. Commercially, felt sheets are made by jabbing the wool fibers between beds of needles. These felting needles have notches down the length of their tips that are directional. Meaning they grab the fibers and push them down so that they tangle with one another but retreat cleanly to jab the wool again with the next pass. This process progressively tangles the wool into felt. Artist have taken these industrial needles and used them to create sculptural felt like the face shown here as well as pictorial felts that look like watercolor paintings. This technique can also be combined with wet felting for endless possibilities! Usually the term "needle" is used in front of the word "felt" so it is not as often confused with traditional wet felting as the techniques described below are.

Embellishing

Felting needles have also been incorporated into sewing machines by many of the sewing machine manufacturers and are the new excitement in surface design and embellishment. Unfortunately many of the companies selling these machines and teaching the techniques are referring to the process as felting or machine felting and it is neither.

Created by Susie Slider

Fulled Garments (Knitted or Woven)

Traditionally weavers have "fulled" their woven wool cloth when they removed it from the loom by getting it wet and agitating the cloth. This helps lock the wool fibers into place making the weave sturdier. This is called "fulled cloth".

More recently knitters have created designs in which they knit items on large knitting needles in an exaggerated size with wool yarns. The knitted item is then put in the washing machine and shrink/fulled it to its desired size and shape. This should be called "fulled knitting" and the items described as "knitted/fulled" but often they are mistakenly referred to as felt.

The definition of felting is:

A textile structure composed entirely of fibers physically interlocked and consolidated by the use of mechanical work (friction), chemical action (soap-pH) and moisture without the use of weaving, knitting, stitching, thermal bonding or adhesives.

---International Feltmakers Association

Why getting the terminology right is important:

While all of the other techniques described above are fabulous and can be used to create very stunning artwork, only traditional wet felting meets the criteria to be called felting. When exploring all of these fiber arts please use the proper terminology so that all artists and their respective crafts can be advanced with the recognition they have earned and deserve.

Superwash Treatment of Wool

Superwash is a term used to describe wool fiber that has been either chemically stripped of it’s scales or has been coated so that the scales lay flat. Without exposed scales along the length of the fiber it cannot felt. This is how SmartWool^® and other washable wool clothing is made. It is washable because it is unable to felt and thus, unshrinkable! Superwash fibers looks identical to other commercially prepared fibers so it is important as a feltmaker to avoid this wool at all costs and always ask the seller if the wool has been treated this way.

Animal Use Statement

Fleeces are obtained by routine shearing or combing and never require the animals to be harmed. Felt artists and hand spinners require fibers of the highest quality. Only healthy animals in low stress environments are able to produce clean fleeces of exceptional quality. As fiber consumers, we play an important role in the well being of fiber animals by purchasing our materials from Sheperd’s that are concerned about the health and well being of their flock.